Misha Bykowski

Misha Bykowski

About

My research looks at the expansion of home security as a now commonplace experience in Tokyo, Japan. Counter to popular publications asserting the comparative safety found in Japan, I document a local shift in perception coincident with the growth of Japan’s security industry. In this milieu, technology has been called upon as a remedy for social ills. Considering various technologies of safety (locks, intercoms, sensors, surveillance, etc.), I am interested in how these products articulate new norms of protection in their everyday use. My research will show how the home’s securitization not only reflects changing crime rates, but maps onto pressing concerns over demographic shifts, social atomization, illegal aliens, and family structures.

Prior to Stanford, I attended the University of Chicago where I received my BA in Cultural Anthropology.